Announced via the government's 2015 budget, the reserve represents a bid by the U.K. to thwart the illegal fishing that threatens the species in its territorial waters. No fishing or seafloor mining will be allowed in the reserve, except for traditional fishing around the island of Pitcairn by the local population, says Sala.
The reserve's creation is dependent on partnerships with non-governmental organizations and satellite monitoring resources, according to the budget. Those resources are already in place, says Sala.
Thirty percent of the U.K.’s waters around the world are now protected, the highest percentage of any country’s waters on Earth. Although the new reserve will become the largest single marine protected area anywhere, the network of reserves created around the Pacific remote islands by the U.S. in September is bigger in total, at nearly 490,000 square miles (1,270,000 square kilometers). (Learn about how large marine reserves are protected.)
Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve
The Pitcairn Islands are some of the most remote on Earth. The surrounding waters contain intact deep-sea ecosystems, and their coral reefs harbor abundant sharks and large fishes. In March 2015 the U.K. government established the area as a no-take marine reserve—the largest single reserve in the world.
UNITED KINGDOM 94,058 sq mi 243,610 sq km | PITCAIRN ISLANDS MARINE RESERVE (U.K.) 322,781 sq mi 836,000 sq km | CALIFORNIA (U.S.) 163,696 sq mi 423,970 sq km |
“Pitcairn’s waters contain some of the few pristine coral reefs left on the planet,” says Sala. “They also contain intact seamounts [submerged mountains] and deep-sea habitats that have not been touched by trawling and which harbor many species yet to be discovered by science.”
On the 2012 expedition, Sala and his team discovered several new species of fish by dropping cameras into deep water. A larger effort is likely to discover hundreds of new animals there, he says. (See photos from Sala's expedition showing life on Pitcairn today.)
"The Pitcairn Islands have some of the cleanest waters in the world."
- Enric Sala, Ecologist
“The Pitcairn Islands have some of the cleanest waters in the world,” Sala says. “And Ducie Atoll is as pristine as it gets,” he added, referring to the most remote of the islands.
Sala's dive team could see for 250 feet (75 meters) and spied many sharks and a vast garden of pale blue coral that looked like giant roses.
Pitcairn’s residents asked the U.K. government to create the reserve to thwartillegal fishing from foreign fleets, which have been encroaching on their territory. Around the neighboring islands of French Polynesia, many of the sharks have been fished out. By protecting its natural resources, Pitcairn islanders also hope to attract higher numbers of tourists. (Learn how drones fight illegal fishing.)
Sala calls Pitcairn “one of the best-kept secrets of the U.K.” To get there from Washington, D.C., takes five days on boats and airplanes. “That’s longer than it takes to get to the moon, but it was worth the trip,” he says.
BLUE: Completed expeditions | GREEN: Protected areas |
source: nationalgoegraphic.com by By Brian Clark Howard